The discussion presented in this paper turns around the several possible meanings of the qualifying adjective "popular". The charismatic figure of Father Cícero Romão Batista, Juazeiro's patriarch, has belonged, for many decades, to the pantheon of popular devotion of millions of pilgrims, but it is nevertheless still regarded with strong reserve inside the official Church. At the moment, it seems that this official position is being reviewed. An institutional rehabilitation of the "godfather" may well being under way. This being the case, the paper asks if, to what extent and under what conditions, can this transformation of Father Cícero's image flow together with certain metamorphosis of what has been named "Popular Church", so as to endow, even though unexpectedly, the Brazilian Catholicism with a new icon.
Popular Church; Father Cícero; religious icon; identity